1. Technical Field of the Invention
This disclosure is directed toward a display assembly, and more particularly a collapsible and portable display and system for the presentation of golf club shafts wherein a supported generally planar surface provides most of the support for the display system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the golfing industry, it is important that the club manufacturers are able to provide sizing or fitting of their golf clubs to the golfing public. Often, this takes the form of fitting sessions, wherein a representative of the manufacturer visits preordained sites and conducts fittings to determine what specifications would be best suited for each individual golfer. Proper fitting of the clubs involves selecting club head properties such as model, center of gravity properties, lie angles, loft angles, and weights; shaft properties such as length, weight, tip stiffness, flex, and flex point. Of course, the goal is that the golfers will achieve better performance with their fitted clubs and purchase the manufacturer's golf clubs, therefore these sessions are a very important step in the selling process.
Today, a golfer selecting a driver from manufacturers has ten or more different shaft manufacturers to choose from, and some of these manufacturers have as many as twenty different specification options. First, a golfer must decide between steel and graphite, and then the golfer must decide between flexes (Ladies, Seniors, Regular, Stiff, or X-Stiff), or weight (for example, 54 to 88 grams), or torque (which can range, for example, from 2.2° to 4.5°), or launch point (low, medium or high), and some golfers may prefer a shaft that is an inch shorter or longer. It is therefore apparent that it is important for the manufacturer's representative to be able to carry with him or her and be able to present and display a large assortment of shafts with varying specifications.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,584,861, incorporated in its entirety by reference herein, attempts to address one or more of these issues with a portable golf shaft display assembly. However, such an assembly is not readily adaptable to a true fitting scenario, in which, for example, at an outdoor “demo day,” manufacturers face crowds of potential customers milling about, in often windy conditions, and with the manufacturer's representative in need of a surface upon which to rest items, including golf club components for examination, presentation, and/or fitting purposes. Moreover, the concepts disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,584,861 include a system that is positioned close to the ground, and therefore is subject to inadvertent kicking or tripping, and includes crossed golf club shafts that may stick out into pedestrian traffic, creating a potential hazard, may be difficult to balance, remove, and replace, and present an unsightly, relatively disorderly, and even threatening/uninviting appearance similar to a pike redoubt or other military barrier. Such prior art concepts also provide little to no opportunity for branding or presentation of marketing materials.
Thus, there is a need in the art for means to allow a manufacturer representative to carry with him/her a large sampling of golf club shafts in a very compact, portable and easily carried case, and most important, one that is easy to set-up and display, and to effectively perform a fitting operation while using.